Eurasian Wigeon, Putney Great Meadows, VT, April 2015

Just before lunchtime came a report of a Eurasian Wigeon spotted in Putney, VT, feeding in a flooded field at the Putney Great Meadows.  Back in Spring 2014 I had decided not to chase a VT Eurasian Wigeon spotted in northwestern VT because it was a 3 ½ hour drive for me.  But this bird was in southeast VT, and although I didn’t know where Great Meadows was exactly, I knew this would be less than a 2 hour drive away.  As I rushed to head out the door I e-mailed the person who reported it and hoped she would get back to me with directions before I got to the area.  (It was there the day before as well, though the news didn’t get out.)  Luckily the local VT birder sent great micro-directions while I was en route – park on River Road opposite Ompawmet Road at the railroad tunnel.  Then climb up the bank to the railroad tracks for a nice view of Great Meadows to the east.

When I first arrived at River Road and got my first distant glimpse of Great Meadows I didn’t see any standing water in the field.  Did I have the right location?  But as I got to Ompawmet Road I saw the railroad tracks and tunnel, and new I was in the right spot.  I could see another birder with a scope up on the tracks, so I quickly got out of my car and climbed up the very steep bank to join him.  He had the target bird in his scope, and I got a quick view – a nice male Eurasian Wigeon! 

As I set up my scope to get better looks, I noticed that there was another birder/photographer out in the field quite close to the birds.  And I could hear the Canada Geese starting to “talk” as if they were upset at his presence.  I quickly got on the Wigeon, and got this passable phonescoped picture of this charming bird –

Good thing I got this shot when I did, because not 30 seconds later the photographer walking in the field flushed the entire flock of dabblers including the Eurasian Wigeon.  This was less than 2 minutes after I arrived – if I had delayed my trip by even a few minutes I would have been most disappointed.  Plus there were many Green-winged Teal in the flock, and I was really hoping to be able to check for Eurasian Teal, but never had the chance to.  The Wigeon and the other dabblers never returned while I was there.  And the photographer flushed most of the other birds in the field as well, so I didn’t have the opportunity to look for other rarities.  Those photographers….

It turns out that there was another Eurasian Wigeon in Vernon, VT that day, and one each in central MA and central CT.  That was 4 in the Connecticut River Valley on the same day.  And a couple Eurasian Teal were seen in VT the day before as well.  That’s a nice haul of European migrant waterfowl for inland New England!

VT was my last New England state for Eurasian Wigeon – the 234^th species I’ve seen in each of those 6 states.  I now have seen this species in 13 states overall – not bad for a Eurasian bird (see my statebird map below).

This brings my VT total up to 268, and 1,998 in New England.  Just 2 more to go to 2,000.